Electric scooters for grown-ups now available for rent in SF, San Jose

LimeBike debuted electric scooters at pop-up events in San Francisco over the weekend.

Photo: LimeBike

A company called Bird unleashed a flock of motorized scooters for short rentals in San Francisco and San Jose over the weekend.

These are scooters with handlebars that you ride standing up — a grown-up, electrified version of the kind little kids ride. They are not Vespa-style scooters like the ones Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn rode in “Roman Holiday.” The system is called dockless or stationless because the scooters can be left anywhere to be picked up by the next rider.

Asked if Bird has permits to operate a scooter rental, a spokesman said in an email, “We believe that we have all the licenses and permits necessary to operate in each of the cities. We also recognize that this is new technology, so we understand cities may still be determining the best way to regulate it and we look forward to working closely with local officials to develop a framework that works for everyone.”

LimeBike, a bike-rental company based in San Mateo, is also testing electric scooters in the city.

On Wednesday, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency sent a letter to Bird, LimeBike and Spin, which is also starting e-scooter rentals. It said it “will actively enforce local laws protecting the city’s right of way.” It also asked them to submit “a business plan for operation in the city” and provide a copy of the registration required to operate a business.

Bird, a startup, lets people rent electric scooters with a mobile app. So-called “dockless” rental companies let people leave vehicles on sidewalks, a practice that is controversial in many cities.

Photo: Bird

Paul Rose, a spokesman for the agency, said electric scooters “are not explicitly covered in the transportation code.” On March 6, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors introduced legislation requiring a permit to operate motorized scooters.

Until then, they are not prohibited, although “it is illegal to place a scooter or any other object in a manner that obstructs the sidewalk or other pedestrian paths of travel,” Rose said.

State law prohibits riding motorized scooters on any sidewalk and requires operators to have a valid driver license and wear a helmet.

The letter warned the companies that “it will not tolerate any business model” that obstructs the public right of way or poses a safety hazard.

San Jose also does not require permits or regulate electric scooters, often called e-scooters. Bird “did not reach out (to the city) beforehand. They called us (Monday) to let us know they dropped off scooters in our city,” said Colin Heyne, a spokesman for the San Jose Department of Transportation.

While both cities say they are eager to encourage alternatives to cars, neither wants to end up like some places in China where the streets and sidewalks are littered with dilapidated bikes dropped off by stationless bike-rental companies.

San Francisco and San Jose both have agreements with Motivate to operate Ford GoBike, a bike-rental operation whose pedal-powered bikes are parked in stations around town. The contracts prohibit other fixed-location bike-rental operations from doing business in the two cities.

San Francisco has given Jump an exclusive permit to operate electric-assisted bikes that can be locked to any bike rack and are therefore called stationless. San Francisco also has permitted Scoot, which places Vespa-style scooters (which the city calls mopeds) on city streets.

“We welcome improved mobility options. But we want to carefully consider the potential benefits and impacts of any new private transportation service,” Rose said.

The Bird scooters are calibrated to go a maximum of 15 mph and last about 15 miles on a charge. They are located and unlocked with a smartphone app. The cost is $1 to start each ride plus 15 cents for each minute, so a two-minute ride would cost $1.30.

Bird, based in the Venice neighborhood of Los Angeles, said it has about 175 scooters in each of the two cities, although “that number is constantly in flux as we recharge Birds, and maintain them,” a spokesman wrote. The company plans to add scooters to meet demand and remove any that don’t get at least three rides a day. He added that Bird is “committed to taking action to avoid cluttering sidewalks. That’s why we instruct riders to avoid parking in public pathways and to park at bike racks when available.”

LimeBike, which operates dockless bike rentals in numerous cities, dropped off some e-scooters (the stand-up kind) in San Francisco last weekend as part of Sunday Streets in the Excelsior neighborhood, and the previous weekend “as part of a pop-up in conjunction with the St. Patrick’s Day weekend festivities,” said LimeBike spokesman Joe Arellano. LimeBike scooters are “powered by batteries and require collection every night, which helps to limit the amount of time they are on the streets.”

LimeBike rolled out a fixed-location bike-rental operation in San Jose, but got a cease-and-desist order because it violated the contract the city had with Motivate. It has an agreement with two shopping centers in San Jose, Santana Row and Valley Fair, to operate bike rentals on their properties, Heyne said.

Kathleen Pender writes the Net Worth column in The San Francisco Chronicle. She explains how the big business and economic news of the day affect a household's net worth. She covers saving, investing, debt, taxes, housing, mortgages, retirement plans, employment and unemployment with a focus on issues specific to California and the Bay Area.

When it comes to big financial decisions, she believes that the simplest answer is almost always the best and that people would stay out of money trouble if they didn't get involved in things they can't understand. Pender welcomes questions from readers and frequently answers them in her column.

She majored in business journalism at the University of Missouri-Columbia and was a Knight-Bagehot fellow in business journalism at Columbia University.